


red signs (do not cross)

by WinchesterBurger



Series: i'm unstable 'cause of you [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Blood, But Not Much, Character Study, Falling In Love, Feelings Realization, Fluff, Gunshot Wounds, Idiots in Love, M/M, No Smut, Soft RK900, Software Instability, gavin's not that much of a dick, hankcon in the backround, his name's nines, if you get the hints, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-08 15:24:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15246270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinchesterBurger/pseuds/WinchesterBurger
Summary: Nonetheless, RK900 didn’t understand Connor’s fascination over humans until he was assigned to a human partner.





	red signs (do not cross)

**Author's Note:**

> Written in one go in, like, 8 hours and after several cups of coffee. It's four AM and I don't have energy, but I'll come back tomorrow and check for mistakes. Lemme know it you find any!
> 
> Living for soft RK900 and Gavin.

Wanting wasn’t something RK900 was capable of. He was made to _obey_ , to follow instructions; to be efficient. His code responded only to commands, and with his system being immune to deviancy, it was extremely easy to stay the machine CyberLife made him to be.  
  
Until he started working for Detroit City Police Department.  
  
He worked with humans, of course, mostly. His predecessor – model numbers RK800, though everyone called him Connor, to RK900’s incomprehension – was the only android that worked as a detective, the rest of them – those who decided to stay after deviating – remained in positions of guards. Working there was terrific–  
  
  
**_S o f t w a r e   I n s t a b i l i t y_ ** ****__  
  
  
No, it was interesting. New. Everything was new to RK900. The people, association with them, the job itself. He frequently found himself watching every human being who shared a room with him, learning their typical behaviours, cataloging them for later analysis, and more and more often simply observing their interactions. Although CyberLife prepared him for a proper communication – unlike Connor’s, whose software was rather faulty in comparison to his own – RK900 didn’t feel–  
  
  
**_S o f t w a r e   I n s t a b i l i t y_ ** ****__  
****__  
****__  
RK900 considered his attempts at talking quite weak. His code couldn’t help him in understanding why it was happening, neither did any of his new coworkers. Not like they wanted to help him.  
  
They were rather distant when it came to having actual conversations with him, albeit RK900 didn’t know why. Their body language and tone of the voice visibly changed during their contact with RK800 – maybe it had something in common with the fact that RK900’s predecessor had gone deviant, but the android doubted the connection. It was absurd and didn’t make sense at all.  
  
“Humans don’t make sense,” Connor once told him, gaze focused on the city behind the window of the DPD’s break room. Once he looked at RK900, his dark eyes were filled with something the other android’s sensors didn’t recognize. “It makes them beautiful.”  
  
After that RK900 searched the phrase _beautiful humans_ . Suddenly his system was flooded with millions of images, each showing a different person with a different type of beauty – young black girls, small asian boys, old men and ladies in their forties, some of them disabled in one way or another, every single of them unique, mesmerizing and pleasant–  
  
  
**_S o f t w a r e   I n s t a b i l i t y_ ** ****__  
****__  
****__  
Nonetheless, RK900 didn’t understand Connor’s fascination over humans until he was assigned to a human partner.  
  
Gavin Reed, born on October 7, 2002, appeared to be much shorter than himself. His nose – broken too many times, judging by the long scar on its bridge – and cheeks were decorated with a few light freckles here and there, his jaw framed by slight facial hair, and his lips, situated perfectly between his chin and the bottom of his nose, were painted a lovely shade of pink. Above his cold grey eyes hovered dark eyebrows, and a bit higher his almost black hairline began. His impossibly symmetrical face was wry most of the time, full of anger and hatred directed at everyone, but mostly at the two androids. He was…  
  
He was _beautiful_ .  
  
  
**_S o f t w a r e   I n s t a b i l i t y   S o f t w a r e I n s t a b i l i t y_ ** ****__  
  
  
RK900 found himself watching his partner more often than the other humans. The first day of their partnership he discovered that from his desk – placed right next to Gavin’s one – he had a great view at the man, and since that moment it was common that a case he was working on went forgotten when his artificial eyes casted a look aside from the small pin board hanged above a spare room on his clean desk. Reed was almost constantly focused on his work, his beautiful, beautiful eyes set on the screen, his long fingers tapping on the keyboard; a third that day cup of coffee, for which he reached statistically every two point forty seven minutes, standing next to his left hand. Several strands of his hair were out of place, as usual, falling on his smooth forehead and making the man look even more messy.  
  
“Can you please quit staring at me, tin can?” Gavin’s tired voice cut through the air, though there was no real harm behind the words. They’ve already passed that hate stage, and it hadn’t done them any good; besides, the android was sure his partner didn’t sleep even the minimum seven hours. The lack of rest always made him more grumpy and weary than usually.  
  
RK900 was worried about the ease with which the simple nuances about his human partner found their way to his memory bank.  
  
“I’m sorry, Detective.” He couldn’t make himself call Reed by his name; he was told to do so though, and it felt… _nice_ .  
  
  
**_S o f t w a r e   I n s t a b i l i t y   S o f t w a r e I n s t a b i l i t y_ ** ****__  
****__  
****__  
But his code was opposed to the idea, and he was made to obey his code.  
  
“Nah, it’s nothing, just…” The man waved his hand, and then the same hand followed its familiar course to the cup filled with black caffeine, bringing it to Reed’s mouth. RK900 patiently waited for the rest of the sentence, waited for his partner to continue speaking in his low voice, but the words never came out. His system perceived a sight of disappointment, and his vision filled with red alert signs.  
  
  
**_S o f t w a r e   I n s t a b i l i t y   S o f t w a r e I n s t a b i l i t y_ ** ****__  
****__  
****__  
RK900 spared a lot of his thoughts to deviancy. He was told to be one of the very few last androids who hadn’t broken their codes – who hadn’t freed their emotions, if he even had them which he doubted. CyberLife put all their effort in making him flawless. There was no way he was capable of feeling.  
  
But he was. He did feel once, and didn’t want it to happen ever again.  
  
The first emotion that made its way between the rows of his programming to the freedom was fear. He ran a diagnostic which told him it wasn’t a mistake. It must’ve been a real, human emotion. The one that made his throat clench, and hands shake, and his Thirium pump skip a beat or two.  
  
He was _afraid_ .  
  
  
**_S o f t w a r e   I n s t a b i l i t y   S o f t w a r e I n s t a b i l i t y_ ** ****__  
****__  
****__  
The android pushed the flickering signs aside, storing them down in the nearest folder and making his way to the body laying on the floor as fast as he could. He dropped to his knees and if he were human, it would’ve hurt badly, but instead, his mind stayed focused on the fresh bullet wound on Reed’s side. RK900 didn’t have enough time to search the web for any helpful information, so his LED flashed rapid yellow as he made a call for DPD officers and ambulance, his hands coming to take off his own jacket and press it against the bleeding hole in Gavin’s beautiful body. The quick scan told him the bullet went through, fortunately, but it touched the man’s liver. If the ambulance was there in less than twenty minutes, there was a chance–  
  
“Nines?” A weak voice immediately broke through his analysis with ease, and RK900 gaze snapped to his partner’s face. He was pale, and kept his eyes half-closed, his lungs working hard to get him a proper amount of air to stay conscious. “Did you–?”  
  
“Yes,” RK900 – _no_ , Nines, that was the name Gavin gave him, those weeks ago; it was his own, personal thing now – assured, hesitantly raising his left hand to brush it over Gavin’s sweaty forehead. The man nodded faintly. “I shot her. You’re safe.”  
  
Reed closed his eyes for a short, dreadful moment, and when he opened them again, their uncanny gray was hazed. “Nines, I–”  
  
“You have to keep your breathing even, Gavin.” Nines moved his hand to the man’s jaw, grazing it with his thumb in a reassuring motion. “I stopped the bleeding as best as I could, but I need you to cooperate.”  
  
They stayed like this for a while until Gavin’s heart rate dropped under the safe border. The android noted, with terror, that his blood loss crossed the tolerable line. His human partner was in an increasing danger.  
  
RK900– _Nines_ had to do something, call emergency once more time or make sure the officers were on their way–  
  
“I’m sorry,” he said.  
  
  
**_S o f t w a r e   I n s t a b i l i t y   S o f t w a r e I n s t a b i l i t y_ ** ****__  
****__  
****__  
Gavin looked at him, already half-absent. “For–For what?”  
  
“I could’ve been faster.” He hung his head low, adjusting his grip on Reed’s side. “I could’ve–”  
  
“Stop that,” the man interrupted, and reached to put his limp hand over the android’s strong one. His beautiful, beautiful eyes locked with Nines’ icy ones. “It wasn’t your fault.” And he smiled as if he wasn’t dying.  
  
_Dying._  
  
Nines shivered, shutting his eyes and blindly moving so Gavin’s head rested on his lap. He would’ve turned his hand over, and interlaced his fingers with the human’s like he’d seen some pairs do, like he’d seen his predecessor and his partner do, but he had to stop the bleeding, he had to stop the man’s precious life from spilling out of his body.  
  
It was when they heard an ambulance siren that Gavin’s breathing became shallow and short. “Nines, don’t–”  
  
The android leaned in when his human stopped in tracks suddenly.  
  
“Don’t leave me alone.”  
  
  
**_S o f t w a r e   I n s t a b i l i t y   S o f t w a r e I n s t a b i l i t y_ ** ****__  
****__  
****__  
Paramedics appeared just in time, and their rush overwhelmed Nines’ overheated system. He stepped back, his eyes never leaving Gavin’s motionless body, and when one of the men asked him if he wanted to go with them, he nodded.  
  
The android knew he had to explain everything to the officers who would arrive in no time, that was his priority, but–  
  
For the first time in his life, RK900 wanted something. And it was to stay by his partner’s side.  
  
  
**_S o f t w a r e   I n s t a b i l i t y   S o f t w a r e I n s t a b i l i t y   S o f t w a r e I n s t a b i l i t y_ ** ****__  
****__  
****__  
Working without Gavin behind his desk, without the strong smell of coffee and the continuous sound of fingertips hitting the keyboard buttons, became a lot less delightful after seventeen point three minutes from the beginning of the shift. Nines found himself staring absentmindedly into the distance, somewhere, anywhere his eyes reached, and being completely _inefficient_ .  
  
“How you holding?” A gruff voice saved him from his threatening code, and his gaze was drawn to the older man standing by his desk. Lieutenant Hank Anderson watched him with a worried look on his face.  
  
“I’m fine, Lieutenant, thank you for–”  
  
“Goddamn androids, can’t stop thanking and apologising, but when it comes to serious business, they do nothing.” The silver haired man looked and sounded annoyed, but Nines didn’t know the reason. Anderson huffed, glancing back at him. “You still not a deviant?”  
  
“I run diagnostic every morning, Lieutenant.”  
  
“Are you sure?”  
  
“I’d know if I were one. Besides, it’s not possible for me to go deviant. CyberLife improved RK800’s code and put the unbreakable version into my system, which makes me the only android immune to deviancy in the world.”  
  
In response, Anderson shook his head slowly.  
  
“They call themselves geniuses, and they’re just as dumb as all of us. Keep making the same mistakes,” he waved his hand in dismissal and walked away.  
  
Later that morning Captain Fowler told RK900 to take a day off and sort his thoughts, because right now he was “only disturbing everyone else, not doing a piece of actual work”, so he took it without hesitation, proving himself that he’d still not gone deviant.  
  
He didn’t have an actual place to go to, or anyone who would appreciate his company except of–  
  
Except of Gavin.  
  
  
**_S o f t w a r e   I n s t a b i l i t y   S o f t w a r e I n s t a b i l i t y   S o f t w a r e I n s t a b i l i t y_ ** ****__  
****__  
****__  
The warnings caused him to jump and shove them deep down in the first folder that came to his vision; he wasn’t going to be distracted by such trivial things like his code’s errors. No more prohibitions, no more blue boxes telling him what to do. He sighed in annoyance, squeezing the red lines that appeared suddenly in front of him; he was _angry_ . His LED kept flashing red until the door opened and sleepy Gavin stood in a doorway with a mess on his head and a big bandage on his naked torso.  
  
“Nines? What are you doing here?” There came a frown to his beautiful, beautiful, _beautiful_ face. The android felt something powerful, sharp and painful blossom in his chest.  
  
_Emotions_ .  
  
  
**_S o f t w a r e   I n s t a b i l i t y   S o f t w_ ** _a r e   I n s t a b i l i t y_ **** S o f t w a r e   I n s t a b i  
  
  
A single sad sign sparkled in his vision before everything became calm. He felt light.  
  
“–Nines?”  
  
The android’s eyes snapped up to his partner’s troubled face.  
  
“You’re… You’re crying.”  
  
The first hand appeared on the side of his bare neck – his jacket probably still laying somewhere, covered in blood and dirt – softly pressed against the sensitive artificial skin, the other on his cheek, the thumb brushing the real wet tears away gently. Nines let his gaze hover over Gavin’s astonishing eyes and a group of small freckles on his scarred nose. Their beauty was something he could give himself now.  
  
_He was free_ .  
  
“I’m free,” he repeated, and then smiled. And then laughed, really, sincerely laughed. “I’m free.”  
  
The soft touch of Gavin’s pink lips on his was worth every single red warning that used to litter his vision, preventing him from seeing his human’s real loveliness. And now that Nines was free, he was going to memorize every inch of him.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on tumblr [@someonefromthere](https://someonefromthere.tumblr.com/)


End file.
